Man jailed for second time on drug charges

Press, 9 December 1989, Page 7

Man jailed for second time on drug charges

For the second time since 1987, Francis Donald Ramsay, aged 35, a hunter, has received a prison sentence of two years for possessing cannabis for sale or supply. In the District Court yesterday Judge Noble imposed this sentence on Ramsay, who had been found guilty by a juury last month of possessing the drug for sale on July 5. No evidence of cannabis sales or items usually connected with drug dealing were found by the police when they searched premises ocuppied by Ramsay and found 2.442 kg of cannabis in his truck. But the crown relied on the presumption, in law, that people found with 28g or more of cannabis were deemed to have it for sale or supply to others. Ramsay had 80 times the minimum amount for the presumption of potential dealing to supply. Ramsay said in evidence that the drug was for his own use. He smoked it

regularly and expected the amount he had to last him about a year. It was the remainder of plants he had grown three or more years ago for his own use. Ramsay’s counsel, Mr lan Hunt, said the jury’s verdict indicated it did not believe the drug was for his own use. But Ramsay had consistently maintained he a was a heavy user of cannabis. Although the weight of cannabis was high, this was because Ramsay had cultivated a number of plants. Much of the cannabis was shown to be of low quality or unusable, such as stalk material. Mr Hunt said Ramsay had otherwise been a law-abding citizen, and had done voluntary work to assist the rehabilition of residents of the Salisbury Street Centre by taking them to bush areas for hunting expeditions. The Judge said Ramsay had improved himself after a deprived background. But he had been convicted in 1980 and 1987 on offences similar to the present one. -